It’s Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008. It’s a sunny day at the Fall Foliage Festival in Warner, New Hampshire . It will probably be 70 degrees. The sugar maples glow orange and yellow. We haven’t had a frost.

I’m announcing the Logging contest. Its log rolling; cross cut sawing, under hand chopping, chain sawing, ax throwing, wood splitting. Some world champions, like Ed Brightman and Herb Gingras, show up to compete for $50 first prizes.

It’s the best of times. The stands are full. The contestants, from veterans, like John Postemski, who just had a knee replacement; to the young women and men  from the Thompson School at UNH entertain the crowd with feats of daring, strength, and fortitude.

We have twenty more contestants than usual. My wife Luanne and I are at the scorers' table running two events at once so we can finish before dark. We alternate between buck sawing and wood splitting, and then ax throw and underhand chop. A good day for everyone made possible by our group of volunteer neighbors who bring their chain saws and heavy equipment to wrestle the competition saw bunks into place and cur and haul the pine 8x 8’s into place.

Global climatic change has its short-term upside. It’s not instant gloom and doom. And sure a 70 degree Oct. day has weather explanations. By itself it’s not indicative of climate change. Unfortunately, the climate is changing. The frosts and the winter are later. We’d expect a frost around Labor Day. Now it’s more than a month later, and still not close. October is more like September. November is more like October. 

People used to bet on the day of ice out on the big lakes, like Winnipesaukee and Champlain. Now they may not be totally frozen over at all.   Two winters ago I kayaked on a still unfrozen Mountain View Lake at the foot of Mount Sunapee around Jan. 1.

The farther north you go, the more dramatic the changes. The Arctic Ocean will become ice free in the summer, unleashing further warming as sunlight is no longer reflected back by the ice. Already, methane, a much more potent green house gas than carbon dioxide, is reported bubbling from thawing permafrost into the atmosphere.

It is not only the balance sheets of banks and global finance companies that are in disarray and threatening bankruptcy as capital assets disappear. The global climate balance sheet is sending us unmistakable signals that we must act now before the planet is forced to find a new climate balance point, one that may not be at all favorable for our civilization and our species.

This glorious day amidst brilliant sun and good neighbors is also a signal to us that if we do not act responsibly we risk all of this, not just for ourselves, but for our kids and grandkids.

We have the tools that we need to make a difference. We can build a continental renewable power grid and create millions of jobs using wind and solar and hydro not only to replace coal electricity, but to power electric cars that use no gasoline.

We can replace all income taxation with ecological consumption taxes to allow the market to send proper price signals. What’s sustainable will be cheaper. What’s polluting, depleting and ecologically damaging will be more expensive. Our hearts tell us what we should do. Prices tell us what we will do. We can use ecological taxes to get the prices right.

Roy Morrison is Director of Office for Sustainability, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester NH .

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Fact check

Methane bubbling:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/23/eamethane123.xml

Methane released in the Arctic could raise global temperatures

By Jessica Salter

Last Updated: 6:01am BST 23/09/2008